So, I've got a level in Cleric, and the Magic domain let's me count as having a level in Wizard for the purposes of activating magic items. Anyone have any good recommendations for magic wands to make use of?

Well, let me clarify a bit on the matter of the Windwright Captain and our need of a pilot; I would rather play the Knight Phantom. What I'm saying is that I'm willing to jump on this grenade if no one else will lol.

That's pretty much how I felt about the mechanic. I really liked my Warmage. Of course, our group has changed a bit since then and gotten more magical.

Kunoichi, not sure you'll need wands, but I imagine one with a buff spell (haste?). What kind of char do you plan on building?

As a ghost? Just take note that you possess only items which you wore before you died (so any material items you cannot carry to ethereal plane or through walls and such as incorporeal entity). Ofc having ghostly bag of holding would allow carry them extra dimensional space.

Rhaegar14: A dragonblood sorcerer variant gets UMD instead profession and craft skill. Factotum also gets all class skills as class skill. Anyways you can get it as class skill by via a feat (it's called City Slicker but you can re-flavor it to have different four skills what you want to have). But level dip as rogue or spellthief also works :). Gives at least balance as class skill for the ranks.

Anyways being captain you would get ensured spot in the game, also I could add use magic device as class skill for dragonmark heir (it makes lot of sense when think about it). One level dip is enough for lesser mark and getting UMD as class skill after 4th level (and so can trade two levels after 5th skill points for cross class skill). Not to mention after finishing windwright captain you could go on either as duskblade or take more levels as dragonmark heir and unlock greater dragonmark (and more spell-alike abilities and have more influential improved standing in house Lyrandar). Not to mention gives nice selection of social skills which can be useful besides your ability swing sword around.

So far 6 players and two of them go to pilot and mechanic. So 4 slots are filled but this is not 'first posters pick' based on the game as I watch also char concepts and backgrounds when I select the players finally. I make final decisions around before next weekend. Depending how fast potential players post their chars up.

@kckolbe: Zaer recommended I take the full template with three class levels build, so I went with two levels of the Feat Rogue from Unearthed Arcana and one level of Cloistered Cleric from the same. I can pretty much use any wand from either the Cleric or Wizard lists, so that should give me quite a bit of versatility, at least with proper wand selection.

Though, now that I'm thinking about wands, that brings up another item question: Zaer, one well-known trick for saving money on wands is to take them off of lists where they're lower-leveled, such as the Trapsmith prestige class having Haste as a first-level spell. Would it be alright for me to take advantage of this trick, or would you prefer if I tried to avoid it?

I would say you avoid the trick because it's unlikely those of specialist caster classes make wands and sell them (if they make wands they are exclusively for themselves). However if you want go wand blaster route, get the item which allows combine three wands into one rod and fire the three wands off same time for blaster fun .

It's straight out of the rules for creating magic items. A magic item that grants a +10 competence bonus to a skill would be worth 10,000, according to the math given on the second table, and that's the cost for every +10 skill item listed in the Magic Item Compendium, so it seems pretty clear.

The reason having a +10 item and a Hat of Disguise is cheaper than just buying the ring is because there's an extra cost for combining two items together, by the way. ^^; I'm not yet at the point where my item slots are all full, so having two separate items and a lower overall cost is better for now. At higher levels, though, I'll probably wind up spending more gold combining various items together, once I get to the point where I have all my equipment slots filled.

Zaer, which auras do you plan on taking? I was thinking of taking 2-4 levels of marshal to represent my character having served under the captain's during the Last War. Currently leaning toward Motivate Charisma and Motivate Intelligence for my character. I know you are planning on Motivate Dexterity, probably Determined Caster as well. Just wanna make sure there isn't too much duplication.

Vandros Derram will have Determined Caster, Master of Tactics, Motivate Charisma and Motivate Strength minor auras. Then have Motivate Attack and Motivate Care major auras. Also via feat he has extra draconic aura since 3th level; Senses (so bonus to spot, listen and initiative). Not mention he would then have 3 auras active then as Senses is based on him having dragonblood (he will have dragonblood sorcerer archtype, plan qualify for it being silverbrow or rather brassbrow human).

Also he will have Adreanline Rush variant from PHB II so he can provide temporal HP equal his marshal level (or double that if party is under 50% HP).

I will then take Motivate Intelligence and Motivate Charisma as well, since I might want to use that one in combat (for Use Magic Device), also Motivate Ardor for Major. I'm thinking of doing an archery focus, though obviously his combat contributions will be minimal.

Wow... with no flaws, no racial bonus feat, and no feats from class levels, the pilot build coming together in my head is very, very feat-starved. Never even mind fluffy feats (past the Dragonmark), I'll be leaving basic gish no-brainers behind. Bleh.

Wow... with no flaws, no racial bonus feat, and no feats from class levels, the pilot build coming together in my head is very, very feat-starved. Never even mind fluffy feats (past the Dragonmark), I'll be leaving basic gish no-brainers behind. Bleh.

I think I'd probably try to avoid working Windwright Captain into a gish build, myself. ^^; As-written, it really works much better with just a straight Bard entry.

I should have the backstory for my character worked out in a couple of hours. ^^;

Edit:

My early life doesn't matter much, or at least not to me. It was another life, and everything that happened in that life feels... distant, dreamlike. I don't really have many clear memories of those days. I was born and raised in Starilaskur, and life at home was... not perfect, but much better than it could have been, now that I think back on it. I remember that dad fought in the Last War in his early days, and that he'd taken a bad enough wound that they'd had to remove his leg and send him home to recover, away from all the fighting. Needless to say, he hated the War, and was often very vocal in his insistence that no daughter of his was ever going to go off and join the army.

When I ran away from home at 16, naturally my first move was to enlist.

Military life was pretty simple. First I went through the same basic training as everybody else, where the drill sergeants managed to knock some discipline into me, then I settled into the life of a soldier. It was boring, for the most part, follow orders, maintain readiness, go where they told you to go and do what they told you to do... And then there were those brief, exciting, frightening, action-packed days where the actual fighting and dying happened. I don't really remember many of the individual engagements, they tend to all bleed together over time, but I do remember that my military career lasted for 8 years, and that I was good enough at being a soldier to earn a promotion or two over that career.

The Day of Mourning is also a bit jumbled in my memories, but that's for a different reason. I can quite clearly remember that the final battle in the Last War was a free-for-all, forces from Thrane and Cyre and Darguun, and of course the Brelish units I fought alongside, all converging together onto the same battlefield in a four-way battle for control of the area. Then came a bright flash of light some ways off, and everyone paused for a few seconds as a massive grey cloud rose in the distance. The fighting soon resumed, however, even as the sounds of battle were gradually drowned out by a keening, wailing sound that got louder and louder as the cloud got closer and closer.

The last thing I can remember is the mists washing over us, the ground shaking as the earth tore itself apart right in front of me, men and women and warforged falling to their deaths as a massive cliff rose up, and then pain and darkness... and then nothing.

Things get fuzzy again, after that. I know from checking calendars that it took six months before I walked out of the Mournlands again, but it was impossible for me to track the passage of time while I was in there. I don't know how long it took before my spirit rose, or how much time I wasted just sitting around, haunting that abandoned battlefield. I... I thought I was in Dolurrh, at first, that I'd managed to evade the Keeper's grasp, and that all that was left was for me to wait around and see if I'd succumb to apathy, or if maybe someone would bring me back, somehow.

I don't know how long I spent walking after the boredom got to me, either, but eventually the mist sort of solidified into a wall up ahead of me, and when I pushed through that, I recognized the Brelish countryside. I eavesdropped on a few conversations, managed to figure out what had actually happened to me, what I had become, but after that...

Well, would you know what to do or where to go if you were in my situation? Friends and family were out, I'm a dead woman and I have no intention of ever troubling them with the knowledge that I've become undead on top of that, and as for making new friends, that's not easy when most people out there view you as little more than a dangerous monster. Still, they say all roads lead to Sharn, and that's eventually where I ended up, too, haunting the Cogs until I managed to beg, borrow, or steal the magic items I needed to pass as one of the living.

As for why I joined up with Derram and his merry little band of misfits aboard the Blaze? Well, let's just say we have similar goals. As with all ghosts, I'm sick and tired of running around half-awake in this world, and I want to move on to my final resting place in the next. And in order to do that I need to take care of a little unfinished business, here in the land of the living. Working with Derram is probably my best shot at that.

Wow... with no flaws, no racial bonus feat, and no feats from class levels, the pilot build coming together in my head is very, very feat-starved. Never even mind fluffy feats (past the Dragonmark), I'll be leaving basic gish no-brainers behind. Bleh.

Yeah, quite bit starved . You have 4 feats, and that's why I suggested dragonmark heir so you get lesser dragonmark (requirement for windwright captain) for free. So you have 3 feats to play with gish build wise.

@Rhaegar: If you'd like - I'll play the pilot as a Bard. Dropping the main 'toolbox' idea. If you want to play the pilot, feel free. I just felt bad that you seemed forced into it after having a more concrete idea; where I don't really have a concrete idea. Easier for me to force into a mold. Let me know: Your pick here.

My, how we keep changing! Just to make sure I have this right, here's what I think we have so far:

Rhaegar: A hybrid melee/arcane combatantKunoichi: A hard to hit, low health type with all sorts of tricks up her incorporeal sleeveLuna: A cleric with some resilienceMuse: Full Psionic casterZaer: A party buffer with light utility and light damageLockepick: Our captain, the man with connections

I am still thinking of building hybrid artificer/archer, though currently unsure what we really need to round out. Obviously I'd need to take at least 4 levels in Artificer, but what abilities does the group need? Offhand I can think of a trap disarmer (and possibly setter), and skill at forgery could certainly help out as well. I'm unfamiliar with a lot of the classes you folk are playing, so unsure how to complement them, fill the requirements of "mechanic" (Artificer 4+), and, of course, have fun.

The artificer handbook which I linked earlier gives good build ideas for artificer and being a elf artificer is good way get bow proficiency for free. Also artificer benefit a lot from one feat which gives +1 hit and dmg with magic weapons.

Arlsan is from Sharn. When he signed on in the last years of the great war, who would he be staring at across the battlefield? As in, what countries? And would one of them be more likely than the others to have shifters?

So far as I know Eldeen Reaches kind of 'sat out of the way' from Last War and shifters were found across all Five Nation armies as scouts and mercenaries (kind of like changeling rogues as infiltrators). None the countries really sported massive number of shifters nor formed units exclusively from shifters.